National Women’s History Month, part 3

This is a four part series running through the month of March.  You might want to check out part 2 and part 1!

Who knew there were so many Tuesdays in March?  Even after today we still have one more to go!

If you haven’t taken the quiz yet then you might not know, or maybe you failed like I did and still don’t know…Who was the first woman doctor in the United States?

Elizabeth Blackwell was her name!  She graduated from medical school on January 11, 1849.  Obviously this was many years before it was popular for women to be allowed in institutions of higher education so the story behind her admittance is bound to be comical.  In fact a vote regarding Elizabeth’s admittance was put out to the students and, being the student body thought the ballot a joke, she won the majority!

Although she graduated first in her class the profession was nowhere near ready for a female doctor.  After finally finding a forever-career-home (they actually had those back then) the stint was cut short when she contracted an eye infection from a patient.  Now, I’m not sure about the popularity of glass eyes back then but it would seem that Elizabeth did quite well.  With one fully functioning eye and I would assume another very pretty glass one, she decided to open up her own quick clinic, itty biz, employer…New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.

During the Revolutionary War Elizabeth trained many women in nursing and sent them off to serve with the Union troops.  She established The Women’s Medical College in her Infirmary.  After establishing the college state-side Elizabeth joined forces with Florence Nightingale to open The Women’s Medical College in England, where again she become the first female physician and doctor on the UK Medical Register.